CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — West Virginia could see a rare series of leadership changes in January, when four different individuals could serve as the state’s governor during a 10-day span.
Gov. Jim Justice could be sworn into his new role as a U.S. senator as early as Jan. 3., but Gov.-elect Patrick Morrisey is not set to be sworn in until Jan. 13. In between, current West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair could be called on to serve as acting governor until Jan. 8, when a new Senate president — who is yet to be elected — will be sworn in. The new Senate president would then serve as acting governor until Morrisey is sworn in.
The transition process is not yet “set in stone,” because he is unsure exactly when he will be sworn into the U.S. Senate, Justice said.
“We’re still a long ways from a decision on when I’m going to be sworn in and how all that is going to happen,” he said Friday during a press briefing. “We’re working on this transition and how we’re going to do that and everything.”
The “cleanest way” for the transition to go would be for him to remain governor until Morrisey is formally sworn in, Justice said.
“But with the dates and everything, all that may not work out that way,” he said. “But we’re still working on it.”
Blair, in an email to WV News, said he is “prepared for whatever possibility may come,” when it comes to the transition process.
A similar occurrence took place in 2010, when then-Gov. Joe Manchin ran for and won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of long-serving West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd.
When Manchin was sworn into the U.S. Senate, State Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, in his capacity as lieutenant governor, became the acting governor.
Tomblin was still also acting as president of the Senate, which raised issues of potential conflicts of interest, according to a January 2011 column written by Jeffrey Kessler.
“A number of individuals, including some members of the Senate, saw that one individual representing two branches of government created a separation of powers issue,” Kessler wrote.
“That notion could not be further from the truth,” he wrote.
“We must not and will not let issues of power and titles distract us from doing the state’s business. We have an opportunity to move West Virginia forward and we will. While I may be the acting president, my tenure here won’t be governed by a title I hold, it will be by the acts of the Legislature that we adopt and pass.”
Tomblin later won a special election in October 2011 to fill Manchin’s unexpired gubernatorial term, and was then elected to a full term as governor in November 2012.
Tomblin beat Kessler for the Democratic nomination in the 2011 special election. Justice, who initially ran for governor as a Democrat, beat Kessler for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the 2016 primary.